Back to Earth - Better than Reality

Back to Reality is an amazing episode: heck I'ld argue almost all seasons (yes even 8 ) of RD were pretty awesome all things considered.

But: in comparison, I think Back to Earth really beats it, regardless of it being an off the cuff special

I mean Reality had a great premise: the gang realise their lives were a lie and they are in actual fact people living in a shady mundane world. Great episode but it never really got past Lister and Co finding out about their real selves and a small snippet of action in that "Reality" before being awakened from the hallucination.

But this time: because the Joy Squid kept them under control longer the crew actually got to explore this other reality and actually get something out of the experience as well. Plus because they dealt with their own selves being fictional: rather than everything they ever knew about themselves being a complete lie, we didnt have to stop too long for the characters to recover from the inital shock. Overall the crew got to stretch their legs again and experience another reality to a more satisfactory degree ala Backwards

The characterisation is spot on too: Lister and Rimmer back to being the "odd couple", Rimmer more loveable smeghead than just smeghead...even the cat, a character who didnt tend to do much before got quite a big part in all this. At the same time we can see the characters have all grown up in a way still: specially Lister who has matured though is still the loveable lout we knew.

The allusions to Bladerunner are genius and I was really worried at one point it would end like Bladerunner. But then switching back to Lister "waking up". Plus the appearance of "Konchanksi" - Amazing twist ending to keep everyone guessing till the end. Maybe the explaination for how the Joy squid got there is a bit odd, but the beauty of it is that even though we never saw it happen in Back to Reality it still might of done! (plus it means the series continues with the proud tradition of having plot points that dont actually happen on screen or major plot details that suddenly become nothing of real importance)

I really hope the figures across the board were great and this convinces Dave and whoever else needs convincing that Season 9 (or season 10 depending on if we actually skip 9 for real) would still work, and still pull in the viewers to boot.